Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
WILLIAM WILEY
is one of the true pioneers of this county. He is a native of the Keystone
State, was born in 1836, and is one of the four children of Robert and Margaret
(Foreshow) Wiley, both also natives of Pennsylvania. The mother died when
William was a small boy, and the father was subsequently married to a Miss
Walters, by whom he had four children. Robert Wiley moved from Pennsylvania to
Fulton County, Ohio, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his
death, which occurred in January, 1887. William Wiley left home in 1855 and went
to Minnesota, returning home in 1856. In the latter year he came back through
Minnesota, on
his way across the plains to California, driving an ox team to Salt Lake City,
for Major and Russells. There, with twenty-six others, he hired a Mormon
preacher to haul their provisions, blankets, etc., across the plains, paid him
$50 apiece, and they walked the whole distance to California. The Mormon brought
them to San Bernardino County, and they arrived in El Monte, January 3, 1858.
From that time until 1864 Mr. Wiley was engaged in driving a team; then he
rented land and farmed until 1866, at which time he purchased twenty-five acres
where he now lives, to which he has added about seventy acres more in one tract
and sixty-five acres in two other pieces. He was married in 1872 to Elizabeth
Simmons, who was reared in Louisiana, and who is a daughter of James and Rachel
Simmons. To them have been born the following children: Robert, James, Lula,
Walter, William K., Fred and Lena. Mr. Wiley has a pleasant home, and has been
very successful since coming to this sunny land.
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California � Chicago, The Lewis
Publishing Company, 1889 Page 676
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler